That's correct. You get TWO main characters to play as, and that's it.

However... before you let your disappointment kill your interest in the game, keep in mind that the way this story is told, it would hardly make sense to have six characters in your party, and have them coming and going. The charm in this story is in how they make you invest yourself into Serah and Noel, making you care about their story (and do so in a way that you don't care if there aren't more characters), and make you want to see that story to it's conclusion.

From a plot perspective, you couldn't have more than Serah and Noel in your party anyway. But that goes into "Massive Spoilers" territory.

And you can get monsters to join you... which gives you access to almost a hundred and sixty party members. Monsters range from "Absolutely useless, best fed to your chosen few" to "You can't live without this monster!". And, if you get the DLC, you can have Lightning join you, as well as Amodar, Jihl Nabaat, and Sazh (in terms of human players from FFXIII).

So I wouldn't say that you only have Serah and Noel to play with... some of the monsters are ~far~ better than previous Final Fantasy party members in other games.

#3VegerunksPosted 4/5/2012 1:54:36 PM

Except that they are so desperate to only give you monsters that they classify the 4 extra humans you get as Monsters.

#4TBD2009Posted 4/5/2012 7:51:57 PM

Well, yeah... they call the extra humans "monsters"... but I don't really consider them as true monsters. They even retain a lot of their original battle taunts when they win.

#5VegerunksPosted 4/6/2012 5:36:09 PM

TBD2009 posted...Well, yeah... they call the extra humans "monsters"... but I don't really consider them as true monsters. They even retain a lot of their original battle taunts when they win.

Do they retain a Crystarium board like most monsters as far as i know don't? Or A paradigm shift?

#6TBD2009Posted 4/6/2012 8:07:34 PM

All monsters get a "Crystarium" board to work with... similar to that of Serah and Noel's... however, monsters can only level up their one role... and only a handful of them actually can reach the Level 99 cap. So no... the "human monsters" don't get to have multiple roles, and thus can't shift their own paradigm... but you can have three monsters in battle with you, meaning you can have three monster roles to shift between, allowing you access to "Com/Com/Com" and "Sen/Sen/Sen" paradigms.

#7VegerunksPosted 4/7/2012 9:42:41 AM

TBD2009 posted...All monsters get a "Crystarium" board to work with... similar to that of Serah and Noel's... however, monsters can only level up their one role... and only a handful of them actually can reach the Level 99 cap. So no... the "human monsters" don't get to have multiple roles, and thus can't shift their own paradigm... but you can have three monsters in battle with you, meaning you can have three monster roles to shift between, allowing you access to "Com/Com/Com" and "Sen/Sen/Sen" paradigms.

That's not the same thing lol, but I'm assuming when you setup paradigm shifts that you preset what monsters come out for which shift or how does it work? The same monster stay out until you choose to change monster in the battle with you?

#8TBD2009Posted 4/7/2012 12:08:55 PM

When you are setting up your Paradigm Decks (and, by the way, you can set up THREE Decks, meaning you can do like I've done, and have "Standard battle", "Boss battle" and "Farming" decks), you select which three monsters you want in your Deck. At that point, you set up your Paradigms that you want in effect (you get six, just like FFXIII). Instead of showing "Com/Com/Com", it will show "Com/Com/monster name". I'll give an example of one of my Paradigm Decks below:

So that gives you an idea of how it looks, and how it works. You can swap in other monsters into your Deck, but if it's not the same Role Type, it will change that Paradigm (for example, if I swap out Chichu for Nabaat, Paradigm "#4" changes from "Com/Com/Chichu" to "Com/Com/Nabaat").

It's really easy to get the hang of monsters, and building Paradigms. And if you put in the effort to learn how infusions work, you can build monsters that make Serah and Noel look pathetically weak. A perfect example is Lightning (as a monster Ravager) versus Serah (as a player controller Ravager). With proper infusions, Lightning has much better stats than Serah (even with the controlled Crystarium upgrading guide) without her ultimate weapons and Durable Shaman's Marks equipped, and has access to ALL spells (including all of the "___strike" and "____blitz" abilities). Plus, she has higher HP, and built-in magic and physical damage resistances (again, this is with infusions).

So don't overlook monsters in this game... they're a very powerful ally.

#9Dimon101Posted 4/8/2012 5:10:40 PM

TBD2009 posted...Well, yeah... they call the extra humans "monsters"... but I don't really consider them as true monsters. They even retain a lot of their original battle taunts when they win.

In academia in 4xx, they make "copies" of humans called duplicates, like the captain quiz master quest...in other words, they could be those type of "duplcates", you know? Think about it....---"What's with the Hand-Nose thing?" ~ Wein Cruz talking about Hans from Growlanser Generations

#10TBD2009Posted 4/8/2012 8:25:52 PM

Dimon101 posted...In academia in 4xx, they make "copies" of humans called duplicates, like the captain quiz master quest...in other words, they could be those type of "duplcates", you know? Think about it....

Well, from what I remember about the 4D duplicates, (they did mention this in the datalogs and in the story itself) they do have battle type versions, but if they suffer damage, they're lost "forever" or something to that effect... so I don't think that it's actually the duplicates you're recruiting.

Remember also that the whole reason we're "collecting crystals" of enemy monsters, and using them in battle, is because it's an essence of that monster. Much like the Eidolons that are granted only to a select few L'cie, they are summoned through the power of the crystals. It's a lesser power to summoning those Eidolons, but in it's own right, is better... because you gain dominion over the "souls" of many monsters, and can force them to serve you in battle. So it makes sense that you'd be summoning the souls of the DLC "human" monsters (but I won't get too deep into that, because of massive spoilers).